U0498 Moderate Generic / SAE

U0498: Invalid Data Received From Telephone Control Module

Network and Communication Invalid Data Received

What to do

Do not pick the phone up. That is the whole of the safety advice here, and it needs saying because this fault creates exactly that temptation.

The hands-free system is what makes taking a call in the car lawful in most places. When it stops working, the pressure is to hold the phone instead — and that is both dangerous and expensive if you are caught. Let calls go to voicemail, and if one genuinely has to be answered, stop the car properly first.

Now the good news: there is a free fix that works surprisingly often. Delete the pairing between the phone and the car — on both of them — and pair them again from scratch. A phone software update, a new phone, or the car battery being disconnected can leave a stale connection that fails in ways that look exactly like a broken module. It takes five minutes and costs nothing.

If that does not work, two things are worth mentioning to a garage. Has the stereo been replaced with a non-original one? And has anything been done to the roof or the headlining, since the phone connection uses the aerial up there?

The car is otherwise entirely fine to drive.

What this code means

The telephone control module is broadcasting data that cannot be accepted as true. See U0400 for the family's framing.

This module is the vehicle's hands-free system, and on most modern vehicles it is not a separate box at all — the function lives inside the head unit or the telematics module at U0499, which is why a fault reported here frequently belongs to one of those.

The reason this page carries a higher severity than the entertainment codes around it is not technical. Hands-free operation is what makes using a telephone in a moving vehicle lawful in most jurisdictions, and the penalties for holding one are severe and rising. A driver whose hands-free has stopped working is a driver under pressure to pick the phone up — and that is a far more likely outcome than deciding not to take the call.

So the practical advice is worth giving directly: while this is unfixed, let calls go to voicemail and stop if one must be answered. No call is worth the licence, and none is worth the collision.

Where the fault usually is, in descending order of likelihood:

The pairing rather than the hardware. A phone's operating system update, a new phone, or a battery disconnection can leave a stale pairing that fails in ways that look like a module fault. Deleting the pairing on both the vehicle and the phone and starting again is free and fixes a large share of these.
The aerial, since the module uses the vehicle's antenna module for the phone connection — see U0486.
An aftermarket head unit, where the hands-free function has been replaced by something the vehicle does not recognise, which is the U0485 argument.
The module or its wiring, which is the least likely of the four and the one usually quoted for first.

Likely causes

Start here

Module not coded to the vehicle · specialist
Aftermarket head unit fitted in place of the original · moderate
GPS antenna disconnected or damaged · moderate
Corroded or loose connector · easy

Less common

Damaged data bus wiring · moderate
Software updated on one module only · specialist

Symptoms

Components involved

Information, not instruction

CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.

Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.

Community experience

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What makes one worth reading:

The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
What you measured, not only what you replaced.
What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.